Air Crunches

Of everything we freeze-dry, this is the most dramatic transformation. It starts as a soft, chewy taffy-style candy — the kind that sticks to your teeth — and comes out as something that shatters like a wafer and weighs almost nothing.

The process is sublimation: frozen solid, then vacuum-dried so the ice leaves as vapour without passing through liquid. In a chewy candy there is a lot of moisture to remove, which is why the volume change here is so extreme. The pieces puff up dramatically and end up almost hollow.

Pick one up and it feels like polystyrene. Bite it and it disintegrates into concentrated fruit sugar. If you have never eaten freeze-dried candy before, this is the bag that will convince you the process is worth caring about.

The 1.5 oz bag is one generous serving — 42.5 g of candy that looks like far more than that once it is poured out, because freeze-dried candy is mostly air. It is the size to buy if you are trying a flavour for the first time, and the size that fits a lunchbox or a jacket pocket without being crushed.

Store it sealed in a cool, dry place. Moisture is the one thing that undoes freeze-dried candy — an open bag left out will slowly go soft, so press the seal shut properly and it will keep its snap.

• Snack-sized 1.5 oz bag
• Freeze-dried airheads-style candy
• Light, crunchy, airy texture
• Bold fruit flavors
• Perfect for lunchboxes and on-the-go
• Vibrant multicolor pieces